Are you a hottie?

RoOsTeR wrote:I do have LARGE compost piles that I turn 2x a year that is our chicken, goat and horse pen wastes (some steer as well). Straw, hay, manure, shavings etc. I clear it out of the pens with my tractor and add it to our large piles. Like I said, I turn it 2x a year with our tractor.

you are SO lucky !!!! Critters, poo and a TRACTOR! I'm Jealous!

RoOsTeR wrote:For your SFG compost, keep the pile size managable I currently have three piles that I keep right around 3.5 to 4 foot. 4 foot being the max for the compost I use in my SFG that I turn by hand.

With how beat up I feel there's no way I could even turn a 1ft x 1ft x 1ft pile.

I guess there's one positive to having an abnormally large pile. The temperature is STILL at 120F.

With how beat up I feel there's no way I could even turn a 1ft x 1ft x 1ft pile.

Just think of how in shape you'll be....

Yeah, that's why I tried to go with a tumbler...ha ha

Since rebuilding my compost pile again yesterday, the temperature shot up to 151F.

From 70F(just after the rebuild) to 151 is incredible.

Whoa! Man! That's so awesome! Did you end up adding the alfalfa and blood meal too?

I've had a sick kiddo, and ended up getting it myself, but anyways when I can I want to go out and do a side by side comparison of the tumbler stuff and the pile. I really think something is happening in the tumbler. I got a hand shovel-full out of the tumbler to put in my water bucket...,makes sort of a very weak compost tea for watering. The tumbler stuff looks like it's cooking down to me, and much faster than the pile. My son drilled a bunch more holes in the barrel, so it's getting a littler more oxygen. The experiment continues...

morganfam7 wrote:Whoa! Man! That's so awesome! Did you end up adding the alfalfa and blood meal too?

I've had a sick kiddo, and ended up getting it myself, but anyways when I can I want to go out and do a side by side comparison of the tumbler stuff and the pile. I really think something is happening in the tumbler. I got a hand shovel-full out of the tumbler to put in my water bucket...,makes sort of a very weak compost tea for watering. The tumbler stuff looks like it's cooking down to me, and much faster than the pile. My son drilled a bunch more holes in the barrel, so it's getting a littler more oxygen. The experiment continues...

Yep.....alfalfa pellets and blood meal too. I have absolutely no idea why the temperature is so high. Hey, I'm not complaining at all but I just wonder why it's so high......never had it that high before nor have I ever heard of compost that high either.
I can't think of anything I did differently than the last time except maybe I used slightly more water on the last layer, but that was just because I used the watering can to wash down the house siding behind the pile. I just have no idea.

Whatever is ailing you, drink lots of orange juice. That always seems to help me whenever I'm sick. Hope ya feel better!

I wonder if blood meal that's gotten wet (think standing water in the pail it's in) would work in the compost bin like if it was dry? I'd use the water in the pail also. If you're wondering why it got water in it, apparently the lid wasn't fastened down when I was using it a couple of weeks ago, and blew off during one of our rain storms.

curio wrote:I wonder if blood meal that's gotten wet (think standing water in the pail it's in) would work in the compost bin like if it was dry? I'd use the water in the pail also. If you're wondering why it got water in it, apparently the lid wasn't fastened down when I was using it a couple of weeks ago, and blew off during one of our rain storms.

When you add the blood meal to the compost bin, it will wind up getting wet. So if you have wet blood meal before you add it to the compost, add it anyway. It should work.

Here's a picture of the thermometer in my compost. Sorry for the blurriness....it was taken with my cell phone. It was taken this morning and you can see that it's at 159F. So it went up 8 degrees since about 1am this morning.

My advice is to keep your dried blood as dry as possible, it smells foul when it gets wet!
nice temp in the pile there TTT! You are a HOTTIE! Did you pull out all the stakes? you may want to just poke that pile a bit with a garden fork. As the O2 gets used up the temperature will come down. This will probably be as hot as this pile is going to get and that is good enough.You will not need any more pellets or dried blood. Do not add anything new to this pile.
Here is a good read about composting temperature and physics from Cornell U.

camprn wrote:My advice is to keep your dried blood as dry as possible, it smells foul when it gets wet!
nice temp in the pile there TTT! You are a HOTTIE! Did you pull out all the stakes? you may want to just poke that pile a bit with a garden fork. As the O2 gets used up the temperature will come down. This will probably be as hot as this pile is going to get and that is good enough.You will not need any more pellets or dried blood. Do not add anything new to this pile.
Here is a good read about composting temperature and physics from Cornell U.

Yep....I did take out the sticks today and it was really neat to see steam practically pouring out of the holes. I took a video of it and I was going to post it here but any video taken with my phone looks like crap. Anyway, all I'm going to do is wait till the temperature drops somewhat and poke it around with a stick or a garden fork.

The highest temperature today was 161. I put the thermometer in another part of the pile and it dropped down to about 156F but then since increased to 159F.

It's just amazing.

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:

camprn wrote:My advice is to keep your dried blood as dry as possible, it smells foul when it gets wet!
nice temp in the pile there TTT! You are a HOTTIE! Did you pull out all the stakes? you may want to just poke that pile a bit with a garden fork. As the O2 gets used up the temperature will come down. This will probably be as hot as this pile is going to get and that is good enough.You will not need any more pellets or dried blood. Do not add anything new to this pile.
Here is a good read about composting temperature and physics from Cornell U.

Yep....I did take out the sticks today and it was really neat to see steam practically pouring out of the holes. I took a video of it and I was going to post it here but any video taken with my phone looks like crap. Anyway, all I'm going to do is wait till the temperature drops somewhat and poke it around with a stick or a garden fork.

The highest temperature today was 161. I put the thermometer in another part of the pile and it dropped down to about 156F but then since increased to 159F.

It's just amazing.

I dig it! My friend think I've lost it when I get REALLY excited about a HOT compost pile! In a few weeks you should be able to use it right in the garden! WELL DONE!

camprn wrote:

Too Tall Tomatoes wrote:

camprn wrote:My advice is to keep your dried blood as dry as possible, it smells foul when it gets wet!
nice temp in the pile there TTT! You are a HOTTIE! Did you pull out all the stakes? you may want to just poke that pile a bit with a garden fork. As the O2 gets used up the temperature will come down. This will probably be as hot as this pile is going to get and that is good enough.You will not need any more pellets or dried blood. Do not add anything new to this pile.
Here is a good read about composting temperature and physics from Cornell U.

Yep....I did take out the sticks today and it was really neat to see steam practically pouring out of the holes. I took a video of it and I was going to post it here but any video taken with my phone looks like crap. Anyway, all I'm going to do is wait till the temperature drops somewhat and poke it around with a stick or a garden fork.

The highest temperature today was 161. I put the thermometer in another part of the pile and it dropped down to about 156F but then since increased to 159F.

It's just amazing.

I dig it! My friend think I've lost it when I get REALLY excited about a HOT compost pile! In a few weeks you should be able to use it right in the garden! WELL DONE!

LOL...thanks camprn. I owe most of my success to you.

At what temperature do you suggest letting the pile get to before I start poking/forking it? The last time I waited till it hit about 115F before I rebuilt it. That seemed to work for me but since you're the expert, I'll follow your advice.

Well, it's either use the wet blood meal or throw it away, so I'm going to use it. Since the compost pile is at the back of the property with no nearby neighbors, it really doesn't matter how foul it smells for awhile.

curio wrote:Well, it's either use the wet blood meal or throw it away, so I'm going to use it. Since the compost pile is at the back of the property with no nearby neighbors, it really doesn't matter how foul it smells for awhile.

That sounds like a good idea. I would think that the stink shouldn't last too long.

You don't really want the compile to get hotter than 160 as there is the possibility of fire:
http://www.nachi.org/compost-pile-hazards.htm

Lindacol wrote:You don't really want the compile to get hotter than 160 as there is the possibility of fire:
http://www.nachi.org/compost-pile-hazards.htm

Lindacol wrote:You don't really want the compile to get hotter than 160 as there is the possibility of fire:
http://www.nachi.org/compost-pile-hazards.htm

This is unlikely with the size pile TTT has, however I think a good poke with a fork and pull it apart a bit would cool it down a little. By opening the chimneys it may already be coming down. By tomorrow the temp should be coming down some. 160 is pretty hot and pretty quickly those organisms making all that heat will die from the high temps.

http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Factsheets/FS5.html

camprn wrote:

Lindacol wrote:You don't really want the compile to get hotter than 160 as there is the possibility of fire:
http://www.nachi.org/compost-pile-hazards.htm

This is unlikely with the size pile TTT has, however I think a good poke with a fork and pull it apart a bit would cool it down a little. By opening the chimneys it may already be coming down. By tomorrow the temp should be coming down some. 160 is pretty hot and pretty quickly those organisms making all that heat will die from the high temps.

http://compost.css.cornell.edu/Factsheets/FS5.html

The last time I checked, the temperature was around 158F. When those sticks were in the pile, the temperature was around 162F. If my backyard neighbor would see the pile, he might think that it is on fire. The steam was really coming out of those holes.

It's still amazing to me that I got it up that high. I wonder how high it would've climbed if I didn't pull those sticks out.

Lil brag here:

Saturday, I mowed the grass n bagged the clippings. I then drug out some bagged leaves I had been squirreling away all winter. I made a pile and ran them over with my mower. I then tossed a couple shovelfuls of finished compost and some "filtered" beer . This morning (3 days later), I went to take a look and my thermometer was already >125* and rising

TN_GARDENER wrote:Lil brag here:

Saturday, I mowed the grass n bagged the clippings. I then drug out some bagged leaves I had been squirreling away all winter. I made a pile and ran them over with my mower. I then tossed a couple shovelfuls of finished compost and some "filtered" beer . This morning (3 days later), I went to take a look and my thermometer was already >125* and rising

That's awesome TN.

Well, I dunno what the temp was when I turned my piles. However, the "leaf & bloodmeal" pile wasn't "smokin hot" but it did have the ashy look to it. The horse manure, on the other hand, was steamin!

Since the "leaf & bloodmeal" pile was only about 1.5 feet high, and the horse manure pile was about 2.5 feet high, I went ahead and combined them. My pile may be a bit wide/tall now, but it's not too out of hand. I'm really looking forward to turning it again in a few days!

I guess having at least one "steamy" pile puts me into the "hottie" catagory now!

wncsohn wrote:Well, I dunno what the temp was when I turned my piles. However, the "leaf & bloodmeal" pile wasn't "smokin hot" but it did have the ashy look to it. The horse manure, on the other hand, was steamin!

Since the "leaf & bloodmeal" pile was only about 1.5 feet high, and the horse manure pile was about 2.5 feet high, I went ahead and combined them. My pile may be a bit wide/tall now, but it's not too out of hand. I'm really looking forward to turning it again in a few days!

I guess having at least one "steamy" pile puts me into the "hottie" catagory now!

Welcome to the Hottie World!

That leaf and bloodmeal pile probably wasn't tall enough to build up any kind of good heat. An ideal pile size is between 3 ft x 3ft x 3ft and 4 ft x 4ft x 4ft. If it's a little smaller than that, no big deal and if it's a little bigger than that, again...no big deal.
Now that you combined those two piles, I can almost guarantee that the pile will be generating some nice heat. If you don't have a compost thermometer yet, get one.


as Chef Emeril Lagasse would say....

"It ain't rocket science"

I finally broke down and bought an analog (meat) thermometer with an 18" probe at Walmart in the grill supplies department for $5. It is now my new compost thermometer, much to the relief of my wife, who never was comfortable with my use of our digital grill thermometer for the compost, no matter how well I wrapped it or cleaned it!

1airdoc wrote:I finally broke down and bought an analog (meat) thermometer with an 18" probe at Walmart in the grill supplies department for $5. It is now my new compost thermometer, much to the relief of my wife, who never was comfortable with my use of our digital grill thermometer for the compost, no matter how well I wrapped it or cleaned it!

OMG what a good idea!!! I've been eyeballing a compost thermometer on Amazon for about a month now, but the thought of spending $20+ for a thermometer had me "just" eyeballing it! Now $5 I can definately do without feeling like I'm spending too much money!

Congrats on being a steamy hottie, wncsohn!

I'm using free city mulch - big stuff. I first mixed it with a variety of veggie scraps and pantry clean out items plus some coffee grounds from Starbucks. I got lots of grey, but not a whole lot of heat. It was a smaller pile - 1x3x3.



I scraped half off the top and added 100 pounds of rabbit poo. The pile was still not that magic 3x3x3. The next day (Sunday) was 66 outside, but the pile was near 100!



Today, we layered another 500 pounds of rabbit poo with about 35# of mulch and lots of water...and then piled another foot of mulch on top of the whole thing. I hope to have steam tomorrow.

I ran the numbers for 7# bark mulch at 400:1 and 100# rabbit poo at 6:1 which gave me 31:1 near that magic ratio of 30:1...seems like a lot of poo for a little carbon, but tomorrow will tell the tale. I sure hope this works.... :scratch:

I'm soooo trying to figure out how to make this free city mulch into compost....